About Me
The introvert in me is not into this. But hello there! Lovely to meet (in the vague internet sense).
Hi there (friend) (stranger) (digital wanderer).
My name is Yael.
In Hebrew, it is written as יעל, which means ‘ibex.’
My middle name is Shira (שירה), which translates as ‘song’ or ‘poem.’
I think the name suits me well. Or maybe I should say that I suit the name — the words existed in the world long before I did.
Sometimes I think about what it would be like to be a mountain goat. It is the animal soul calling, an ancient longing to live in a simple and instinctive way with nature.
I feel a call to simplicity and nature. In the city I feel disconnected from my instincts, numbed and overstimulated by the rush and incessant doingplanningtechnologymoneyanxietydemands of modern civilization.
I have a tendency toward romanticization and sentimentality.
I speak in metaphors and rambling ideas, a web of associations that come together like connect-the-dot.
When I was younger, I did not speak much.
Shy, they said about me. Quiet, why are you so quiet? Speak up!, they told me.
When I was younger, I did not speak much, and my body spoke for me.
I was a sick child, from as long as I remember. I knew how to talk to the doctors, I could recite the facts and say the symptoms. I knew how to tell them what they wanted to know About Me.
The twenty five minutes have come and gone and there is more to tell you About Me.
The conventional things, too. The CV information (7+ years in basic and applied research, experienced teacher, key skills include …oh, fuck that).
I grew up in Boston and went to college in St. Louis. I studied Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology (PNP). After college I moved to Tel Aviv and started a MSc. in Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. Soon after, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which is a neurological condition.
Living with MS has been a big thing About Me.
Since finishing the degree, I have not been working. I started to receive disability shortly after my 27th birthday.
I don’t know what to write. It has been longer than twenty five minutes.
That is a thing About Me.
I try to show up and write for twenty five minutes a day, and click ‘publish.’ I am practicing writing and sharing. I am practicing different forms of speaking and self expression. I am learning new ways of relating to Me, and learning too that it’s never really about ‘me.’ We are all part of a connected web, a greater Whole.
I have a tendency to go deep in, to go inward.
I’m practicing getting things out.
This is enough for today.
Cheers, friends. Join me in celebration of the practice and process (it’s always a process)(step by step, twenty five minutes at a time :)
